Warlock

The warlock is an enigma, a person so infused with magic that he manifests power with no training. While his repertoire of effects is small, he has little or no limits on the amount of times he can use them. Warlocks are chaotic creatures at heart, perhaps as a result of the wild magical energy that courses through their veins. They tend to be selfish and don’t work well in a rigid command structure. While understanding the need to stay within a group, the warlock won’t hesitate to leave the group to pursue something interesting. Warlocks generally adventure for curiosity or profit.

A warlock's infusion with magical power often manifests in minor cosmetic changes to their appearance that fosters a sense of wrongness about them. A human warlock might have catlike eyes, while a dwarven warlock may be hairless. Warlocks tend to be solitary, preferring to be left alone rather than join in camaraderie.

Warlocks come from varied backgrounds. It is not known how or why the magic picks them; it just does. A common thought is that the warlock has aberration, elemental, fey, or outsider blood in his veins. Many warlocks are driven out of their communities and left to fend for themselves (leading to many scholarly debates about “nature v s . nurture” in regards to the warlock’s allegiance to chaos).

Warlocks are found amongst all races, but are most common in races that produce sorcerers. This lends some credence to the “alien ancestor” theory. Most warlocks are human or half-elf, although there are large numbers of gnomish and half-orcish warlocks as well.

Role: The warlock is a support class. He only has a few arcane tricks up his sleeve, but he can be relied on to provide them on a regular basis. While not a good substitute for a sorcerer or wizard, the warlock is a great supplement to one.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the warlock.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Warlocks are proficient with all simple weapons and light armor.

Arcane Armor Mastery

As the warlock increases in level, his school abilities are less subject to arcane failure while the warlock is wearing armor. At 1st level, the warlock does not suffer an arcane failure penalty when using a school ability while wearing light armor. This extends to medium armor at 5th level and heavy armor at 9th level. The warlock may still select feats to reduce the arcane failure chance when wearing armor that he has yet to master.

Cantrips

At 1st level, the warlock learns a number of cantrips equal to their Cha modifier.

Errata

Cantrips now reads: “At 1st level, the warlock learns a number of cantrips equal to their CHA modifier.”

School Ability

The warlock does not cast spells. Instead, he is infused with supernatural energy that allows him to perform magical powers at will. At 1st level, the warlock may select two school abilities; he also gains new school abilities at higher levels (see the warlock table).

School abilities come from the arcane school lists. In addition, the warlock may learn additional school abilities listed in this section. The warlock does not gain any specialist bonuses or bonus spells. The warlock may only take a school ability less than or equal to his warlock level. He may also take a cantrip in place of a school ability. For example, a 2nd level warlock gets a new school ability. Since he is not yet fourth level, he must select a 1st level ability or cantrip.

The warlock does not need to take a lower level school ability in order to select a higher one. For example, a 4th level warlock can select summon monster even if he doesn’t have acid dart. In addition, the warlock may swap school abilities whenever he is able to take a new school ability, but he must replace the old one with a school ability of equal or lesser value (cantrips can only be swapped for other cantrips).

The warlock’s level is used to determine the caster level for school abilities. The DC for any save is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the caster’s Charisma modifier. School abilities are not spells and thus cannot be affected by metamagic feats. Using a school ability is a standard action.

Errata

School Abilities -- added to the fifth paragraph: “Using a school ability is a standard action.”

Arcane Grip (Su): Any door, window, chest, or other opening with a lid that you touch remains locked as per the arcane lock spell. You must continue to touch the object in order for this effect to remain in place. Anything that can open an arcane lock can also foil this ability.

12th

Break Enchantment (Su): This ability works exactly as the spell of the same name. You can only use this ability on a single person or object once per day.

16th

Mind Veil (Su): Your mind is shielded from scrying or manipulation as per the mind blank spell.

Conjuration School

CL

Ability

4th

Summon Monster (Su): You can summon monsters to aid you as per the summon monster II spell. The duration lasts a day. Creatures summoned always have maximum hit points.

12th

Combat Teleport (Su): You can instantly teleport anywhere that you can see. Roll a d20. On a 6-20, you end up exactly where you want to be. On a 2-5, you appear close to it. Roll a d8 to determine the direction (N, NE, E, etc) and then roll a 1d4 to determine the number of 5-foot squares in that direction you’ve moved. If this is impossible (e.g. you were trying to teleport near a wall), then you appear as close as you can in that direction. On a roll of 1, you suffer a mishap. You take 1d10 points of damage and roll again (perhaps changing directions and/or suffering mishaps again). You keep rerolling as long as you suffer mishaps. In addition, you are dazed for 1d4 rounds.

16th

Phase Self (Su): You can create an ethereal door that only you can pass through. This functions as the phase door spell except that you cannot take or allow anyone else through the passage. The ethereal door only opens as you pass through it and closes as soon as you leave. It is possible for an opponent to target you through the door before your next turn.

20th

Summoning Master (Su): You may use any summon monster spell for this ability.

Divination School

CL

Ability

4th

See Invisible (Su): You see invisible creatures or objects as per the see invisibility spell.

12th

Analyze Magic (Su): You discern the properties of any magic item as per the analyze dweomer spell.

16th

Find Person (Su): You can locate a person no matter where she is. You can only concentrate on a single individual at a time and, once you change people, you can no longer use this ability for the previous target for the rest of the day.

Enchantment School

CL

Ability

4th

Heroic Touch (Su): You gain a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks. You can transfer this ability to another creature with a touch, but you lose the benefits while the other creature is affected. You can take back the bonus at any time.

12th

Hypnotic Presence (Su): You can influence anyone within 10 feet with as per a suggestion spell.

16th

Trembling Presence (Su): Any creature that gets within 30 feet of you gets the shaken condition. You may select which creatures within range are affected. There is no saving throw, but magic resistance applies.

Evocation School

CL

Ability

1st

Arcane Bolt (Su): You can make a ranged touch attack that does 1d6 points of damage, +1d6 for every two warlock levels. The warlock may choose whether the damage is acid, cold, electricity, or fire. The range on an Arcane Bolt is 100ft. + 10ft./level.

Arcane Burst (Su): You can use his arcane bolt as a burst effect with a 20 foot radius.

12th

Arcane Flurry (Su): You can divide your arcane bolts into multiple bolts that do half damage. You may manifest a number of bolts equal to your caster level/4 (so three at 12th, four at 16th). These bolts require separate ranged touch attacks and cannot manifest a burst effect.

16th

Arcane Eruption (Su): You can now use your flurry bolts for burst effects. Each bolt has a burst effect with a 40 foot radius.

Illusion School

CL

Ability

4th

Blurry Form (Su): Attacks miss you 20% of the time when you use this ability. Your attacks also have a 20% miss chance while you are in blurry form.

12th

Phantasmal Demon (Su): You can create a phantom fear that attacks the target. This operates as per phantasmal killer, except that the target is not subject to immediate death and takes 1d6 damage for every 3 warlock levels (4d6 at 12th level, 5d6 at 15th level, 6d6 at 18th level).

16th

Phantasmal Dance (Su): You can affect multiple targets, as per the weird spell. This ability still does not cause death, nor does it cause the Strength damage.

Necromancy School

CL

Ability

4th

Draining Touch (Su): You can make a melee touch attack. If you succeed then the target is shaken for 1d4 rounds.

12th

Touch of Fatigue (Su): Your draining touch now causes a target to become fatigued if he fails a Fortitude save.

16th

Astral Travel (Su): You may travel into the astral plane at will, as per astral projection. Unlike the spell, however, you cannot take anyone else with you.

Physically Fit (Su): You can add a +2 bonus to one of his ability scores. You may change the ability score affected from round to round.

16th

Iron Skin (Su): You can turn your body into living iron, as per the iron body spell.

Damage Reduction

As the warlock increases in level, he becomes resistant to certain effects. At 3rd level, the warlock receives damage reduction 2 against physical attacks. The warlock must also choose three effects from the following list: cold, cold iron, electricity, fire, or silver. The damage reduction does not count against the three chosen effects.

At higher levels the damage reduction increases. In lieu of an increase, the warlock can remove one of the three effects from his list. He may only do this twice; at least one effect must always be able to overcome his damage reduction.